Folksy Friday - Birds, Bees and other Bugs...

I seem to have been rushing around doing all sorts this week, but I decided I'd take some time to do Folksy Friday again!
I've been a bit of a lazy blogger so I hope you like :)

My theme this week is Birds, Bees and other Bugs...
Each picture links to the item in the shop, so give 'em a click and check out their shops!

Folksy Friday...

So this is my first Folksy Friday and as some of you may know, I've been looking forward to this all week!
Everyone's getting ready for Valentine's day, so this week, my theme is 'Love is in the Air'! Maybe you'll find something special for your loved on in one of these fab little shops!

Each picture links to the item in the shop and I highly recommend you check out the rest of these seller's shops too, not just the items I've posted here today!

A Little Birdie Told Me...

Just uploaded my lovely little birdie necklaces to Folksy! It's really made my day actually - I've been stuck in the lab all day and it's really cheered me up taking photos of this, haha! Simple things eh :)

So here it is people, I hope you like it!

http://www.folksy.com/items/1264609-A-Little-Birdie-Told-Me-

I'm happy with the pictures but I'm still not sure they do the necklace justice! The largest bead is a really gorgeous fire polished one, so has an amazing finish that shines different colours in the light but that was basically impossible to capture in the picture!

If any of you have any tips on getting good pictures of your products, I would love to get a few comments about that here! Share the knowledge people!

<3

My new creations!

This is just a short post, but I had to put a little something!

I've made a couple of new pairs of earrings lately, using some semi-precious stones and sterling silver. They're absolutely gorgeous, even if I do say so myself! I've also got a new necklace to show you all:

This is just a quick picture I took on my phone after I'd made it, really just to send to my mum, but I thought I'd upload it here to give you readers a sneak-preview of what I've been up to lately!

I was going for a sort of natural look with this piece and I think I've achieved what I set out to, with the antique brass pendant, and the greens and the browns in the beads. Also, there's a really nice combination of glass, wood and metal that I think really suits it all well! This picture doesn't really do the colours justice, but still, I just love this little piece! I've only got four of them, but I'm undecided as to whether or not to keep one for myself... I love that little bird, he's adorable!

I'll be uploading the items for sale later today I think, or at least some time this week depending on what the rest of the day holds for me - it's the beginning term at uni though, so things haven't gotten too crazy yet... at least not now that exam week is over!

There's nothing like a bit of cutting and sticking!

Well, like the title says... there's nothing like a bit of cutting and sticking!
If you ask my parents, they'll tell you I've been loving it ever since I learned to wield scissors as a little one! Back then it was hacking pictures out of whatever catalogues and magazines I could get my chubby fingers on, not it's more about scrapbooking... much more grown up, haha!

Tonight though, I've been working on a project for a very late Christmas present. I wish I could share more than that, but until I've given it to my friend, I can't say too much about it, just incase she's reading! For now though, lets just say, it's looking fab and is so full of cheer I'm sure she's going to love it! And it's certainly been stress relief for me, you really can't beat a bit late night crafting, especially the kind that involves scissors and a glue stick!

I'll give you all a little more info about it once I've handed over the final piece, but for now, my lips are sealed!

2.30am... I think I'm done for the day!
Good night people

Cut Out and Keep

I was trawling the internet this morning looking for project tutorials and stuff to see if I could learn some new jewellery making techniques, or just to learn something crafty in general!

While I was googling, I stumbled across this little gem of a website: CutOutAndKeep.net

They've got everything from jewellery making projects to recipes, clothing to cleaning products! You name it, they've got it and I am loving every minute of it, haha! Here are just a few of the things that have caught my eye:

How to make Resin pendants...

How to make a Wire Tree...

Recipe for Toffee Squares...

I think I could blog about this all day! Especially the recipes! I love to cook, so with that and all sorts of jewellery making tips to collect, I'm in my element :)

I hope you enjoy the site as much as I am!

Folksy Fridays...

I've been checking out some other blogs today and I'm suddenly wishing it was Friday (probably an unusual thought to be having on a Sunday night)... But not because I'm not looking forward to Monday, instead because I want to do a 'Folksy Friday'.

Some of the blog posts I've seen are just lovely and I've seen some really great shops as a result!

Roll on Friday! Hopefully I'll have a few more followers by then too, so that the shops I find actually get some valuable promotion too!

If anyone has any tips for me, when it comes to Folksy Fridays, please leave me a comment!

Hello Readers!

Hi all,

I'm new to all this blogging stuff so I'm not really sure where to start! Maybe a little bit about me and why I decided to make jewellery could be a good start?

Well, as you've probably seen by now, I'm a Molecular Biology student who's pretty much decided to take jewellery making up as a hobby. I'm in my final year now, so for me that means long hours working in a meningitis lab then coming home to a mountain of revision and lecture notes. As I'm sure you can imagine, there are only so many hours a person can spend in a lab without going mad... so that's where it all started out.

On the verge of a breakdown from stress, I decided I needed to find some sort of hobby to give me a break from all my Uni work... As I said in my profile, I used to paint a lot but being away from home, living in a student house, I don't have a whole lot of space for that so I needed to think of something a little more compact. Eventually, I settled on making jewellery.

I think what finalised my decision was the fact that I'm allergic to nickel... For me that means, I'm a young woman with a tiny jewellery selection because I can't buy anything from Topshop or New Look or those sorts of places because virtually everything they sell is full of nickel and I can't really afford to be buying everything in silver! So, I scoured the internet to learn more about the craft and quickly ended up with a little shop on Folksy selling the pieces I've made.

So far, life's been too hectic to really promote my shop but I hope to make some more sales in 2011 and eventually make enough stock to attend a craft fair or two later in the year!

If you've made it this far, thank's so much for reading! I promise posts will get more interesting as I get more into blogging and of course once I crack on making some more little creations!